Scott City baseball -breezes past Kelly in district preview

BENTON -- With Kelly and Scott City set to face each other in the first round of districts this weekend, the two teams got an early chance to scout each other as the Hawks hosted the visiting Rams Tuesday afternoon.

In what they hope is a preview of things to come the Rams pumped out 16 hits for 15 runs to easily route Kelly 15-1 in six innings on the mercy rule.

"Scott City is a good team," Hawks coach Nate Wills said. "They're seeded No. 1 in our district for a reason.

"They hit the ball extremely well and their pitcher did a great job of mixing things up and keeping us off balance especially early in the game."

After scoring two in the first and three in the third, the majority of Scott City's offense came in the final two innings of the game.

The Rams put up back-to-back five run innings in the fifth and the sixth off six and four hits respectively.

Scott City had the Eagles by the 10-run mercy rule going in to the bottom of the fifth leading Kelly 10-0, but a triple by Dustin Crowden followed by a RBI single by Michael Kuykendall allowed the Hawks to extend the game, cutting the deficit to nine.

Unfortunately for Kelly after Scott City put up the above mentioned five runs in the sixth, the Hawks weren't able to muster a rally in the bottom of the frame, falling in their last home game of the season.

Earning the win starting pitcher Jamie Scholz stays perfect on the year improving to 7-0. He goes six innings allowing one run and four hits while striking out five.

"I felt good," Scholz said. "I threw a lot more strikes than I have the last couple of games. Kept the ball low, gave up a few hits but that's going to happen.

"When the offense is scoring runs for you all you have to do is worry about throwing strikes."

On offense all but one starter for the Rams had a hit with Scholz and Brett Dirnberger leading the team with three.

With his team's regular season now in the books, Ram's coach Lance Amick said he's happy how his team's performance on the year, especially with so many underclassman in the lineup.

"14-4 is a pretty good regular season," he said. "Coming in to the year with the youth we were going to have on field I didn't know what to expect.

"I kind of thought we could be fair, but to be honest with you I never would have dreamt we would be at this point. I'm really happy with the guys."

For the Hawks starter Jeff Gates takes the loss, going 2 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on five hits while walking five.

Four of Kelly's five hits on the afternoon came from two players with Kuykendall and Andy Klunk contributing two apiece.

Weather permitting they take on the Kennett Indians Thursday at 4 p.m.